disaster theme park
Height: 262 feet Death-defying scenes: 9 Proposed site: Daegu, South Korea. Soon-Ming Hong
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plan for the disaster theme park

Welcome to the Risk Theme Park

Height: 262 feet Death-defying scenes: 9 Proposed site: Daegu, South Korea

Few of us face death by choice, and we’ve become comfortable relying on firefighters, cops, and others to do the death-facing for us. That, argues Soon-Min Hong, has bred in us a cavalier attitude toward these vocations. The collective lack of understanding inspired Hong, a student architect at London’s Royal College of Art, to design the Risk Theme Park, a conceptual high-rise that lets us tap into our inner Bruce Willis. Firefighters guide groups of 20 through nine death-defying disaster scenarios. The goal of the exercise, which is meant to be located in Daegu, South Korea, is to “teach people to value and appreciate through experience,” and the park offers visitors both perspective and adrenaline spikes. Safely, of course.

disaster theme park plan

This article was originally published in the July/August 2016 issue of Popular Science, under the title “A Theme Park For Disaster Junkies.”

Corinne Iozzio
Corinne Iozzio

Corinne Iozzio is the former Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. In that role, she oversaw an award-winning crew of science journalists—both editors and writers—who are obsessed with shining a light on the thousands of ways science and technology transform our lives daily. She lives in Washington Heights in New York City (or, as she affectionately refers to it, “Upstate Manhattan”) with her partner, an ever-expanding collection of vintage hand-blown glass, and a talkative tuxedo cat hellbent on knocking it all to pieces.

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